UPDATE: Cold weather the latest hurdle to reopening Highway 212 in Watertown (Audio)

December 12, 2019
Mike Tanner
KWAT Radio News

WATERTOWN, S.D.—So close, but yet so far away. That might be a good description of the Highway 212 construction project in Watertown.

All of the work was scheduled to be completed weeks ago, but repeated wet weather delays have set the project back.

Now the major hurdle is the cold.

The highway can’t fully re-open until a new concrete bridge deck over the Big Sioux River is poured. That work was scheduled to be done today, but it won’t happen.

South Dakota DOT Project Engineer Bryce Olson says it’s simply too cold….

He says the “risk” is newly-poured concrete that freezes…

Olson says if they poured the bridge deck and then the concrete froze before it fully cured, that would create a, “bad mistake”…

So they’ll hope for warmer weather, and a window of opportunity to get the bridge work done….

Until then, the detour signs will remain in place.